#26 Ellen Kullman

CEO, EI du Pont de Nemours

#26 Ellen Kullman

CEO, EI du Pont de Nemours

As leader of the 213-year-old chemical giant, Kullman recently earned a hard-won victory against activist investor Nelson Peltz. His hedge fund started aggressively angling for spots on the board at the end of 2014 and had expressed interest in breaking the company into pieces. Kullman steadfastly disagreed with Peltz's plan, calling it "high-risk" and bad for shareholder value, and investors apparently agreed and voted down Peltz's proxy. Even before he came into the picture, Kullman was leading the company away from legacy products like performance coatings and into areas like agriculture and nutrition. For instance, DuPont is spinning off its Chemours chemical business and plans to use the proceeds to return as much as $4 billion to shareholders through buybacks. Its stock price has more than tripled since Kullman took the top job in 2009.